One class of prior devices to barbecue or roast food products, whether the devices be those using electricity or liquefied petroleum gas or charcoal, are so constructed that the foodstuffs to be barbecued or roasted are generally positioned directly above the electrical heater or the liquefied petroleum gas burner or charcoal. Because of this construction, it is then necessary to have the foodstuff being barbecued or roasted turned or rotated continuously in order to insure an even cooking and to prevent the charring of the foodstuffs.
Hence with such prior devices constant attention is therefore necessary in order to attain satisfactory results.
To overcome the problem of the need for constant attendance at a grill or barbecue oven to prevent burning of the foodstuffs and to turn and rotate the foodstuffs as necessary, there was developed the concept of cooking foodstuffs by convection. Device in this class have a combustion chamber from which the heated air is passed into what is then referred to as a cooking compartment. In these smoke cooking devices a combustion chamber is usually to one side of the cooking chamber and at a lower level. Use was made of baffle plates between the cooking compartment and the combustion compartment to direct the hot gases into the cooking compartment in such a way as to more completely envelop the foodstuffs placed therein. The combustion compartment usually had a removable cover thereto and it was used primarily for a warming plate while the food was being cooked in the cooking compartment.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,851,941 discloses such a device. In this patent the cooking compartment comprises a pair of fixed shelves to which the heated gas is fed by a chimney type arrangement between the combustion compartment and the cooking compartment. The heated gases pass through this chimney into the cooking compartment and with a baffle plate placed at the end of the compartment opposite the combustion compartment a flue is formed thus causing the gases to pass downward over the food into this flue in the cooking compartment and then out through the flue and its attendant chimney.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,477,360 discloses a smoke cooking device again having the combustion compartment to one side of the cooking compartment. In this patent the heated gases are directed to the cooking compartment directly from the combustion compartment without use of the flue as in U.S. Pat. No. 2,851,941. In this patent the hot gases pass upward through the grill supporting the foodstuffs. Use is also made of said baffle plate between the cooking compartment and the combustion compartment which is placed at an inclination such as to direct the heat from the underside of a grid in the combustion compartment upon which the combustible materials are placed, directly upward toward the food product to be cooked.